The Killing Spree
by Heisenberg1998
Summary: A simple game with a sick twist. "Pick up" from where the original series left off introduces all new characters, new diaries, and a few twists that you might not see coming.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1:**

It was going to be a normal day. I would go to school, hang out with my friends, go to work, go home, and repeat the process again the next day. That's what's funny about life. Just when you start to get into a routine life finds a way to screw with you. I was sixteen when I moved to Japan for my dad's new job as head of a large corporation. I wasn't thrilled about the move but what could I do? I had no choice so I accepted it.

When I first approached the house I thought it was a joke. We could never had owned this large of a house back in America. This house was three floors with a fully furnished basement and finished attic and four rooms. I stood in front of it holding my bags.

"Is this it?" I asked.

"Yep! I told the company that promised to put us up here that the only way I could consider a big move like this was if we had a nice house to live in. I'm lucky they wanted me badly enough to go along with it." My dad said. He smiled at me and put down one of his bags putting a code in a panel on the stone wall surrounding our home. When he pressed the enter key the chest high gate popped open. Dad handed mom the key. "Go open the door for him dear."

"Of course." She replied. She walked over and unlocked it allowing me to open it. The inside of the house was very plain. It had a large entryway that was completely white. There was a set of stairs to the right just before the doorway that would lead into the kitchen which came with the stove, fridge, etc. From the way it looked the whole house was fully furnished. For the moment I had decided to ignore the rest of the house and find a room to claim which was the first one I saw. I walked into a room with blue walls which was different from the tan that filled the rest of the house. A bed sat with a plaid bedspread and three green pillows. On the wall parallel to the bed was a dresser with a TV on it. I put my bags on the bed and began to unload them into my dresser.

"Mike!" It was my dad. "Someone is at the door for you!" I heaved a sigh and trotted down the stairs. When I got to the door there was a kid who looked about my age standing in the doorway. He was short and a little pale. For the interest of ease I won't write what we said in Japanese.

"Hi." I said.

"Hi. My name is Motoki Oshima but my friends call me Oshi." His unnerved face made me a bit wary. "Call me whatever you want. My mom wanted me to come over and introduce myself and bring over some cookies which I gave to your dad."

"Thanks. Am I going to be attending your school?"

"Probably. All of the kids on the block go to the same high school."

"So you're sixteen?"

"Sixteen, seventeen in february. How about you?"

"Same but I'm seventeen in may."

"So around Koinobori?"

"Isn't it that day when people hang up streamers to wish for good health."

"It's so their son's grow strong and it's celebrate on the fifth."

"Mine's the day after."

"Cool." He smiled at me. "Do you want to go for a walk?"

"Sure." I turned and looked into the house. "Mom, dad! I'm going for a walk with the neighbor!"

"Okay son! Be back before sundown!" My mom yelled back. I closed the door and we began walking.

"So how did you get to the door if we have that gate?" I asked.

"Your dad buzzed me in. You guys have a security system that lets you unlock it from the inside. All I have to do is press your buzzer on the wall and it'll tell you i'm here."

"Cool." I felt my pocket start to vibrate. I took my smartphone out of my pocket and found it was a text message from my dad.

"What is it?"

"Just my dad giving me the code for the gate." I closed out of the messaging app and opened my journal app. I began to write down what had happened in the day. I typed my meeting with Oshi and us going on the walk and wondering where we were going. After that I closed out of it and locked my phone.

"What were you doing there?"

"Writing in my journal. It's something I've done since I was ten and I've just done it every since."

"That's cool. I have one as well but mine is just some loose-leaf in a three-ringed binder. I only write about significant events. If there was a big change then I write about it."

"What about the details?"

"I guess I don't like to focus on the minor stuff."

"I'm the opposite in that way. I love the minor details. It means the world to me knowing the lead up. The events make more sense that way."

"Dude, it's a journal. Nobody needs to understand it but me." He smiled. "Let's hurry before the shop closes." I decided not to ask questions like here we were going or how far it was. I just followed. He led me into a town that was busy. It seemed like one of those places that had more people walking than driving. It seemed like the majority of them were families or students. It wasn't surprise seeing as it was a saturday and it was beautiful. We approached the door to a shop before he stopped me.

"What is it?"

"Before we go in I need you to know this guy doesn't take to new people well."

"Should I be scared?"

"He's not going to hurt you he might just be a little cold. Just swing around a few times and he'll warm up to you." He opened the door and a bell rang. It looked like a pawn shop back in America with different items all over like guitars, vinyl, watches, knives, bows, and clothes. Basically a little bit of everything. "Kazuma! Where you at bro?"

"Oshi! What's up bro?" A large man appeared from the clutter. He wore a camo wife beater that showed off his muscles. He finally noticed me. "Who is this?"

"This is my new neighbor. He's from America and I think his name's Mike."

"One of the gun-loving, fat gobbling, war-starting ones eigh?"

"I really find all of that was offensive. We're not all like that." I stated.

"Then what are you like?"

"I bet the American you're describing wouldn't bother learning Japanese because you guys already know English."

"I see your point." He turned to Oshima. "Why'd you bring him here?"

"I know what you think but he's not bad. I decided to bring him along because I need something built."

"What is it?"

"A dresser with one drawer having a fake bottom. Parents are getting nosey and I need a place to hide things."

"Any preference on wood? Style?"

"Something cool. Irresistible even. Something they would see and wouldn't question why I bought it."

"Got it. Give me three days. It'll be done by then." He took a notebook out and jotted something down. "Any colors?"

"Black, red, the usual. Make it look good. Make it a bit smaller than average just to make it easier to get in the door and to my room."

"I'll need the dimensions of both doorways." Oshi took a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to him.

"This'll be everything you need to build it."

"I'll tell you the cost when you come to pick it up." He turned to me. "I'll see you later, American" I nodded and we left.

"I don't know if I like him." I said.

"You will. He was pretty cold to me when we first met but he's saved my life more times than I can count."

"How so?"

"I'm not a very popular kid at school. I get picked on a lot for being antisocial and it worries my parents. It's been that way since sixth grade. There have been a few times where kids have ganged up on me to try and beat me up but Kazuma was there and saved me. He always managed to get there in time."

"Sounds like a good friend. People picked on you for being withdrawn?"

"It happens often. Students who can't conform get ostracized."

"You don't have any rules about bullying?"

"Not really. If a student is caught fighting they are put on yard work. Other than that there's no further punishment."

"Sounds pretty brutal."

"You learn to defend yourself. The strong get along and the weak get left behind."

"What are you?"

"I'm the equivalent of an urchin. I stick to the strong to avoid being left behind."

"I see. I should probably be getting home."

"I'll walk with you." That was the rest of the day. We walked home and I learned a few things about him. He's the oldest of four, he has one brother and two sisters, his mother and father are divorced, and he can't wait until he can leave after high school. I waved him off and ran up to my room and stared out of the window. It was dawn when I finally got home. I watched as the morning sun dissolved and the moon began to rise showing off the beauty of the sky. In all of my life up to that point I had never been able to appreciate the sky more.

I laid back down in my bed and turned on the TV. I ended up falling asleep to the news. Apparently there was a killer on the loose somewhere close to my town. That had concluded the first day of what I had originally thought would be hell. Just the day before I had to leave all of my friends to move somewhere unfamiliar. I had to learn the language and somehow be okay with the transition.

That night I had a vivid dream. I was standing on a chrome panel that seemed to be one part of twelve other floating panels. In between the first and twelfth was a throne where a boy sat. He had a long, black robe that seemed like he'd been wearing it for a long time due to all of the holes in it. His hair was long and black but despite wearing the clothes of a sixty year old homeless man he was very young. He looked like he could be my age or even younger. On the panels figures began to appear. I say figures because that's all they were, almost as if the bright sky above us wouldn't display their features. It was only an outline of the people behind it.

The boy stood up and appeared to be floating in mid air. He raised his hands as he spoke.

"Hello ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for coming, as if you had a choice. My name is Amano Yukiteru but you can call me God." I looked around and noticed a small, tan figure floating on it's back. He pointed at the figure. "That is Murumuru. She has been my only companion through these many taxing years."

"I still say we should have done what Yuno did." The creature responded. Yukiteru glared at her with great hostility.

"I will never stoop as low as she did. Now, back to the subject. As I might have mentioned before I am very old. I believe I have been god for three thousand years now?" Murumuru nodded in response. "It has been tiring and I believe it is time for me to retire. That is why I have gathered all of you here."

"Get to the point!" Yelled the figure standing to my right.

"Settle down, Second. I'm getting to it. The reason I've called you all here is to participate in a game. It is one I was in before I became god. The few things you all have in common are the keys to this game. You all keep either a journal or a diary and live in the same region of Japan."

"What do our diaries have to do with this?" I asked.

"Well, Third, it is quite simple. I have given your diaries the ability to tell the future specific to how you have written in your diaries up to this point. For example, if you always write about the best way to escape, you now have the escape diary and your diary will tell you about the best ways to escape in the future. Each of you has a different diary. This was the premise for the game I played."

"You said this was a game so how does one person win?"

"Tenth, you win by killing the other players. A way to do this is the obvious way, stabbing, shooting, and other messy methods but the cleanest way is to destroy their diary. Do that and the other player will die. This is how I played the game but I'm adding a new rule. Your diary will gain the ability of another diary when you kill another player. The prize for winning, you become God." I felt a lump in my throat. "You will take my place and rule over the world and all of it's parallels but you must be careful. You cannot bring anyone into this game who is not a diary owner." His face turned somber and grim. "I made that mistake."

"Why would we want to know that?" asked another player.

"When I played the game my mother and father were murdered and it was my fault. That is all. As of now this game has begun. Please play as best you can!"

I awoke with a start and in a cold sweat. The news was still on the TV and my cell phone was on my night stand. I opened my diary app and looked it over. Nothing had changed which was a relief. I grabbed my uniform and got dressed for the day. I went through the same process of brushing my teeth and putting on my deodorant like I always did. After I was finally ready I grabbed a bagel and left making sure I got my map app opened and was guiding me to the school on my walk through the city. A short while after starting the walk I looked back and saw Oshi. He looked different than before. He had bags under his eyes and he had a sad expression. I stopped to allow him to get closer until I started walking beside him.

"Hey Oshi." He didn't look at me. "Are you okay?" He shook his head. "What's wrong?"

"Just a creepily vivid nightmare." He responded. My skin began to crawl at the thought of my dream last night.

"Wanna tell me what it was about?"

"Just something about diaries and a game. It just had me really freaked." I stopped walking and he turned to me. At first he looked confused but then a look of realization spread across his face.

"Amano Yukiteru and Murumuru." He looked in horror at me.

"What are you going to do now? Are you going to kill me?"

"No. We don't even know if any of this is real or if we happened to have the same dream."

"What are the chances though? That we just happened to have the same dream on the same night!" He started screaming so I put my hand over his mouth and dragged him into an alley.

"You need to shut up! If this is real, if by some chance this is all real, it needs to stay between us and nobody else. If anybody learns about us then we become targets for the other ten." He nodded and I took my hand off his mouth.

"I checked my diary and there were entries I didn't write in there. Big things."

"Like what?"

"It predicted I would get beaten up after school and killed two days from now."

"Just to be sure we should avoid doing whatever you did before getting jumped."

"That's the thing. I don't know what happened before that. It only told me I would get jumped."

"That's right, you only write about major events. It will only show big things that happen."

"What about yours?"

"Mine hasn't updated so I don't know." As if on cue my pocket began to vibrate. I checked it and my diary app was telling me my new entry was loaded successfully. I opened it up and saw a list of things I hadn't done yet. "It just updated."

"What does it say?" I scanned the list and found something about him being jumped.

"It says you did something pig-headed and got some guys mad so they jumped you after school in an alley next to the sushi place." I then realized what my diary was. "It's the opinion diary. It contains my analysis of a situation and my opinions."

"What do you think I should do?"

"Don't do anything stupid or rash." He nodded.

"We have to hurry or we'll be late." He said and we continued on our way.

"Third." I said. "Yukiteru called me third."

"He called me fifth."

"So now all of the other numbers will come after us. They'll try to kill us."

"It looks like the only way for you to survive is by sticking with me."

"How so?"

"It's the same reason you couldn't prevent from being jumped. Your diary only writes about big things so you need me for the details."

"So, what you're saying is, we need to work together."

"Only until you kill someone and take their diary. That way you'll have a fighting chance."

"So you're giving me a fighting chance at winning even though that could mean you losing.?"

"Believe me, I have no intention of losing."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:**

"This is our new student." Said my new homeroom teacher. "Please introduce yourself."

"My name is Mike Triss. Pleased to meet all of you."

"Hi Mike." Responded the class. The teacher turned to me.

"You can take the empty seat next to Masako." He pointed to a short brunette girl with a face that seemed much younger than our grade. Her hair was brown and curled and she had heavy eyeliner but not so much that she didn't look good. I sat down and she gave me a kind of side glance and returned to doodling in her notebook. For a moment I thought of the future diary and how she might be an owner but brushed it off as just being my paranoia.

Class had begun and the teacher was droning on about exponent rules or something. When I felt something land on my hand It was a piece of lined paper. I looked around and nobody seemed particularly interested in me or the paper. I opened it and it only had one word on it. _Hi._ I jotted down a response. _Hello. _I set it on the corner of my desk and Masako grabbed it. Our paper conversation went like this.

_So you're the new kid?_

_Yeah. I transferred from a school in America._

_Cool. Which city did you live in?_

_Syracuse in New York. My dad got relocated for this job._

_Do you like it here?_

_It's okay. I've only been here for about a day. My only friend is Motoki Oshima._

_I know him. He's a pretty weak guy. He always looked so scrawny and I felt bad when people picked on him. I wish I could have done something._

_You could have. There's always something you can do._

_I guess you're right. I like you. You seem pretty nice._

_Thanks but you haven't really met me._

_Oh?_

_If you want to get to know me we should go to a movie._

_Did you just ask me out?_

_Do you have a boyfriend?_

_Well, no but I just got out of a relationship._

_You can say no if you want to._

_Okay. I'll go to the movies with you. Which one do you want to see?_

_You can decide. Give me your phone number after class and I'll text you with the details. _She turned and smiled at me. It wasn't wide or obvious. It was only a slight grin but it was warmer than the side glance she gave me before. Not long after that class had ended and we were breaking for lunch. I stood up and she put a piece of paper into my pocket.

"You're pretty smooth, American." She said and she was gone. I looked around and a few guys were staring at me in awe.

"No way he got her number. Not on his first day here." I heard one student say to another. I picked up my briefcase and left the classroom ready to head to the courtyard for lunch. Oshima had decided to wait for me outside of my classroom.

"How's your first day been?"

"I've got a date."

"Holy shit. With who?"

"Masako I think is her name."

"MASAKO MASUNO!?" He exclaimed. "Dude, what the hell! Every guy in the school has wanted her for the past three years! She hasn't even had a boyfriend before!"

"I guess I'm just really lucky." I said smiling. I continued walking until I found a bench where I could sit and enjoy my lunch in peace which wasn't easy with a screaming Oshi following me. I tried my best to seem as stern as I could as I turned to him. "Don't you think we have better things to worry about than who I'm dating." That shut him up. We sat down and he pulled out what I recognized as a bento box and I pulled out my pokey from my bag. I put the thin chocolate covered cookie in my mouth and began to chew.

"Has your diary updated at all?" He asked.

"I haven't checked since this morning when you were with me." I pulled out my phone and saw the same notification about a new entry. I unlocked my phone and opened the app. I was shocked with what I read. I grabbed Oshi's hand and pulled him behind me. He was refusing to move his legs and was demanding to know why I was dragging him through the school.

"What are you doing? Where are we going? What's wrong with you?" I stopped and asked him a question.

"Where is your sister?"

We began sprinting as fast as we could out of the school and down to where my diary said we needed to go. Once we got downtown we found the library and went to an alley four blocks east of it. When we turned the corner a disturbing sight met us. A man in a black cloak was standing over a mangled figure holding a knife dripping with blood. Oshi screamed and the man turned noticing people had seen his atrocious act and charged at us. I pulled Oshi to the side as the man tried to stab him. The man missed so I took the opportunity to grab the pen from my pocket and stabbed the man in the side with it. It went half way into his side and he fell to the ground. I looked at his face but didn't see any distinct features because of the black ski mask he wore. I only saw his blue eyes. Before we could grab him he ran off.

Oshi wasn't focused with the man but with the corpse. He ran over to it and held it. He looked at me with despair in his eyes.

"She's dead. We were too late." I could see tears begin to swell up in his eyes. I pulled out my phone and dialed the emergency contact.

"911 what's your emergency?"

"My friend's sister has been murdered." As I said it I could hear Oshi let out a loud sob and a scream.

"I need your name and location sir."

"Mike Triss and the alley four blocks east of the Takahashi public library. Please help."

"I'm sending police and first responders to your location. Please stay on the line."

"I can't, I'm sorry but my friend needs me." I hung up the phone and moved toward Oshima who was now covered in blood. I don't exactly know if there's a saying associated with seeing your first dead body so I'll make one now. You never forget your first dead body. This rings especially true when it's the body of a child. As I stared down at the bloody, lifeless corpse I felt a sense of hopelessness. Her eyes were still left open and her face was soaked with a mix of blood and tears. Her stomach was cut open and her organs were out for god and everyone.

"We need to kill him." Oshi said. I was shocked at his blunt statement.

"I know you're pissed but still. The cops should handle this."

"No, we need to handle this. There are only ten people in the world who are capable of targeting my family. It happened to be **my **sister, **my **family, and **my **life. There is no question in my mind. That man was a diary owner." I tried to deny it but his logic made perfect sense. It was odd that it was his family that was targeted and when the man charged he went for Oshi and tried to ignore me.

"How would we even go about finding him?"

"You stabbed him with a pen. Eventually he'll need medical attention. It can't be a common injury. Once there's been a report of it we'll be there. If all else fails the cops will tell us when they have a suspect. When they do we'll kill him."

"No matter what the plans we're not making a move until we're positive you're right." I could hear sirens begin to approach. "For now we tell them the truth about what just happened." A cop car pulled up and rushed over to Oshi's sister demanding he let her go and move away from the victim. We stepped back and let them do their thing. We watched as the paramedics put his sister's body on the gurney and wheeled her into the ambulance. The police moved us to the side and told us to wait while they sent for someone to question us.

"I'm going to interview you each separately if that's alright." We nodded. I began to move from the bumper of the police car we were leaning on over to the edge of the police tape they had set up. There was a crowd of people gathering around the scene to catch a glimpse of what was happening. I looked over and saw the pool of blood and the people who were taking samples and pictures of it. Before I knew it the man had come back over. "Please tell me what happened."

"What's there to tell? Oshi and I were running down the road when we found the alley that his sister was known to hang out in and we saw a man standing over his sister with a bloody knife." He took out a pen and notepad and began writing.

"Why exactly were you running down this way?"

"Oshi had a bad feeling. That's all there is to it."

"You took it on faith that he was right?"

"I believe that the bond between family is stronger than anything that can be explained. I didn't feel the need to question it."

"Never mind that. What happened after he saw you?"

"He charged us and tried to stab Oshi so I pulled him to the side. Before I knew what I was doing I had stabbed him in the side with a pen I had in my pocket. He ran away after that." He put his pen back in his pocket and closed the notepad.

"Your stories match. I've called your parents and they're on their way to pick you up." I nodded and he put his hand on my shoulder. "It's okay son. You'll get past this."

"I'm not particularly fazed by this if that's what you think."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. I don't know what it is but I know this isn't the worst thing that will ever happen to me or the worst thing I'll ever see. I guess I've accepted that terrible things happen."

"Very pessimistic."

"I guess I am a pessimist in a lot of ways but I view myself as a realist." He nodded and walked away. I moved over to Oshi. "What do you think we should do next?" His face was harsh and stern.

"We find the bastard and kill him."

"I don't think we should." He turned towards me and his face turned a bright red.

"How can you say that!" He yelled. People turned our way and I tried to silently shut him up.

"If we're right then he'll come after us again. We wait until that happens and we strike." He calmed down and turned from me.

"Waiting isn't a strong point for me."

"Do you want revenge or don't you?"

"Fine but what do we do until then?"

"What we've been doing. Trying to figure out what this game is about and how to win." I looked over and saw the police letting my mom under the police tape. She ran over to me and hugged me tightly.

"Oh my god, I was so worried when the police called! I'm so glad you're safe!" She cried trembling with fear. I decided to talk to her in english so Oshi might not understand us.

"I'm fine mumma. You can go home. I'm going to stay here and make sure Oshi's okay."

"Do you really think I'll allow you to be alone after this?" She yelled.

"His sister was the one murdered." Her face turned somber as she turned to him.

"... Okay but be home soon." She said and she left. Oshi's phone started to buzz. His phone was an old flip one. I saw him open a text.

"My parents aren't picking me up. They have to go to the morgue to claim my sister's body." He stated.

"I'll walk you home." I helped him up and we walk toward the police tape. The cops lifted it up for us to get under. The crowd had parted except for the reporters on scene who crowded around us. They began to try and film us and were yelling their questions at us. One person was shoving his camera in Oshi's face.

"Please get that camera out of my face." He said.

"We just want a quick word about the traumatic event you've experienced." the reporter replied. I reached over and grabbed the large camera the man next to him was holding and tossed it into the street. If it worked after that it got a good shot of the car that ran it over. The man fell to his knees and began to cry.

"No comment." I said and we walked through the crowd. We were left alone after that.

I took him to his house. It wasn't as large as my home but it might only seem that way because of all of the furniture. I didn't really have time to take in the rest of the house before Oshi had me follow him to his room. It was a bright yellow room with comic books and video games stacked in piles all over the room. He had a large TV with a new game system on a shelf. On the opposite wall was his bed end to the left of that was a bookshelf that housed fedoras instead of books. Yes I said fedoras as in the hat. He moved to his bed and reached under grabbing a three ring binder and setting it onto his bed he turned to the last page with writing.

"Checking your diary?" I asked.

"I figured that after what happened today something would be added." He read the entry and seemed surprised. "The entry about being jumped is gone."

"What do you mean?"

"It was never written. There are no eraser marks or anything." I opened my diary app and noticed my entry about the event disappeared. My phone took on a life of it's own and panned down to a new entry for me. Oshi's eyes grew wide and he stared at me. "We're wrong about this dude. He didn't do it because he's a diary owner."

"How do you know that."

"My newest entry says, '_We were wrong_'"

"You're right. My diary says the same thing only mine has something more."

"When he begs for his life he tells us someone hired him to do it. He doesn't give us a name or any other information. He tells us if we want to find out we need to keep him alive. He does tell us the person is a female."

"What happens next?"

"It doesn't give specifics. It only says, '_In my opinion, Oshi's reaction was pretty extreme._'"

"I killed him anyways."

"Maybe." He moved to his bed. As he did we heard the doorbell ring. He laid back on his bed and sighed.

"Please tell them to go away."

"Do you know who it is?"

"No and I don't care. I don't feel like talking." I got up and went downstairs. I took a look outside and was surprised to see Masako standing in the doorway. She had changed out of the school's uniform and changed to a pair of jeans and a yellow blouse. Seeing her made me feel warm and a bit embarrassed that I was so infatuated with a girl I had only just met. I opened the door and she smiled at me.

"Hi American." She said cheerily at me.

"Hi Masako. Listen, I'm sure you know what happened today so Oshima isn't really in the mood to talk."

"I know. I came to talk to you!" I was confused.

"Why?"

"I just need to talk to you. It's important." I stepped out of the house and sat on the stoop in front of the front door. She moved next to me. When she did I felt my pocket begin to vibrate. I pulled out my phone but before I could open it she took it from me putting it in her pocket.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"There's something I need to tell you before the diary does." I could feel my heart beat faster and sweat begin to form on my brow. "Don't worry, I won't kill you. If I wanted to I would have already. All I would need to do is break your phone and you would die but I won't."

"Why not? You'd be that much closer to winning."

"Are you trying to convince me to?" She giggled. It made me relax a little bit but not much. "The reason I'm not is because I love you."

"We just met."

"I know but my diary told me. Of course I knew you were really cute and stuff. I did have a small crush on you but then Amano told me about my diary."

"What about it?"

"It's the love diary. I told him I didn't love anybody and he told me that when I did the diary would then activate and tell me everything about the other person like what they are planning and when they're in danger. It basically becomes the diary that tells me your future!"

"So what your telling me is you love me."

"Do I really have to say it again? YES!" She yelled and giggled.

"Wow, okay. Well, that's, uh, cool, I guess." She frowned at me.

"Do you love me?" I could feel my face growing red.

"I, uh, I mean, you're really pretty and you seem nice but we've just met. It wouldn't-" She stopped my lips with hers. She put her arms on my shoulders and caressed my head. I did what felt natural and held her waist. Her lips were soft and had the taste of oranges on them. My attention was diverted from her to the door which had been opened by Oshi who now stood in the doorway. At first he looked upset but then more embarrassed than anything.

"I'll, uh, leave you two alone." He said shutting the door. I turned back to Masako.

"Wow. You really don't waist time." I said. She sat up and smiled at me.

"Time is valuable. We should never wait to do the things we know are right." That made me laugh.

"Good point but it wouldn't hurt to slow down a bit and savor the time you have." I stood. "I should be getting back to Oshi. He's been through a lot today."

"Okay but we should do this again sometime." She got up and was about to leave.

"Hey." I said catching her attention. "Not many girls have orange lip gloss."

"It's my favorite fruit. I hope you'll taste it again soon." She winked at me and skipped off. I could feel my heart pounding but I wasn't sure if it was from love or raging hormones. Either way I needed to gain some focus on the matter. I walked back inside locking the door behind me. I saw Oshi sitting on the couch watching TV so I sat next to him.

"What the hell was that?" Oshi asked.

"She wanted to talk to me about something."

"What was that?" He asked. I wasn't quite sure what to do yet so I needed to come up with a convincing lie.

"That date I told you about. I asked her to a movie so she wanted to know when it was."

"I thought we would have more pressing matters than your stupid date."

"As far as everyone's concerned we don't have anything pressing other than dealing with the grief involved with losing a loved one. We need to act like that's true." He begrudgingly accepted my explanation.

"Fine but that doesn't help to solve the problem of figuring out who exactly is coming after us."

"There's no way to find them until they come after us. For now we wait."

"I hate waiting. While we are we should find a diary owner to kill." I was shocked at his blunt statement.

"What do you mean? Why should we do that?"

"I can't rely with you through this whole game. For me to learn some independence I need to gain a diary that is able to be used independently." I could feel a lump in my throat begin to form.

"How would we even start looking? It's not like there is a distinct characteristic that all diary owners have."

"My brother is one. I found his diary on his bed a few minutes ago."

"Are you suggesting we kill your brother?"

"We could right now. All I would have to do is burn his diary. Do that and he dies."

"Show me the diary before we decide that." He handed me a leather bound book that was sitting on the table. I opened it up and saw a few entries.

"I can't understand these. They look like they're written by a five year old."

"It's full of naive Judgements. I figure it's better than nothing." I tried to think of a reason not to do this but I couldn't. It makes the most sense strategically to do this.

"You're right. You should do it." I said. "How do you want to do it?"

"The cleanest way is to burn it. After that I'm leaving this house and never returning."

"Why?"

"Why not? As long as I'm here my family is in danger. That's already been proven."

"Where will you live? I'd say with me but I live next door. They'll easily find you there."

"I have a standing invitation from Kazuma to stay with him. I'll figure the rest out later." He stood up and stretched. "Help me get packed. I'll grab the clothes, you take a plastic bag and take some food from the pantry. There's some money my parents hide in their dresser for emergencies. It should be about five hundred. Grab that too." I nodded and proceeded to complete the tasks assigned to me. After that he called me to the living room. He lit the fireplace and tossed the notebook in. A minute passed before either of us spoke.

"What now?" I asked.

"I leave and go to Kazuma."

Oshi and I were in Kazuma's living room when the news report came on. It was the typical reporter standing in front of the location. In this case, the middle school.

"Cause of death has not been identified yet but eye witness testimony says the boy named Yoritomo Oshima suddenly and unexpectedly burst into flames. There was no sign of any flammable material to start a fire as well as no body to inspect. Is this-" Oshi shut off the TV. We sat in silence for a while.

"I guess it worked." I stated. "Has your diary changed at all?"

"New entries have appeared. You were right. It's the naive diary."

"What's that?"

"Listen to this entry. '_We found the man who wanted to hurt us. He says we should let him go. I think we should. He must have learned his lesson by now._' It's complete bullshit that I would never say."

"Like you said, it's the naive diary. It's a misguided distortion of the truth. We just have to figure out what predictions are inaccurate and figure out what the real events are."

"What?"

"We need to take the information the naive diary has and figure out what will happen in the future and how we would actually react instead of how your diary says we should."

"Got it." I looked over and saw Kazuma's cousin and Oshi's childhood friend, Mami, enter the room with a drink for Oshi.

"Here you go. It's a long island ice tea. I figure you could use it after the day you've had." She said.

"Thanks Mami."

"Kazuma wanted me to tell you you're welcome here as long as you need."

"Tell him I said thanks." She nodded and left.

"I'm gonna go home. It's getting dark." I put my hand on his shoulder. "I'll come back tomorrow."

"Don't. You shouldn't come back until I tell you so nobody will follow you back here."

"How are we supposed to get all of this figured out if we can't talk."

"I'll text you if I need you over here. Until then, don't worry about me." I nodded and left. It wouldn't be far to my house. Only a twenty minute walk so I texted my mom telling her I would be home soon. As I waded through the heavy darkness it began to dawn on me how much had changed in the course of a day. Two people died, I helped a friend run away, and I learned the girl I was into will eventually have to kill me. I tried to focus on the path ahead and not get lost which wasn't easy with all of the thoughts clouding my head.

"Hey American." I heard to my left. Out of the dark emerged Masako.

"What are you doing out so late?" I asked.

"I would ask you the same thing but I already know the reason why you're out here. How's Oshima doing? I know how hard it must have been for him to kill his brother."

"You couldn't possibly be here to talk about Oshi."

"I'm here to tell you that you took a wrong turn. Your house is five minutes in the opposite direction." I looked back and smiled.

"Thanks. I guess I haven't really been here long enough to know." She approached me and grabbed my arm.

"I'll walk you home." She led me back onto a path that would get me home before the morning and we began to talk. "Sorry your first day was so crappy."

"It's fine. I think it was harder for Oshi than it was for me. To be honest, the best part of the day was when you came to see me." I could feel myself blushing and I could only hope the darkness covered that up. She giggled and continued.

"Regardless, I know how hard it is to watch someone die right in front of you. A man forced me to watch as he killed my dad and younger sister. My mom was raped but got spared her life."

"Who was he?"

"Someone who knew how successful my dad was. I never could figure out why the man took it so far that night. My best guess is he wanted to make my dad suffer or maybe it was his twisted way of getting off on the torment of others." I decided not to ask any more questions out of a fear of upsetting her. "In spite of the pain I still manage to get up, get dressed, and go to school. That's all that really matters now."

"I agree." There was a moment of silence. "Are those rumors at school true?"

"All that stuff about never having a boyfriend? No. I've had one serious relationship and that ended because he moved a ways away. We decided it was best to split up. That was about three years ago before I came to this school."

"Was it serious?"

"We were together over a year so, yeah. He was a sweet guy but I realized I needed to move on. I guess the reason I never wanted to date another guy is because I couldn't find another guy who was as great as he was." She squeezed my arm tighter. "Until now, that is."

"What is it about me that you like so much? It's not like you know me that well."

"The way you carried yourself was impressive. The way you talked to me was so cool. You weren't afraid or intimidated to talk to me and you never stopped to try and impress me. I like that." She stood to a halt and made me look at her. "I want to know about you. I want to get to know you and see if you're really the kind of guy I think you are." I pulled my phone out to check the time. It said the time was 7:00pm.

"Have you eaten tonight?"

"The most I've eaten is some pokey and leftover miso soup. Why?"

"Let's grab something to eat. I'll pay if you take us to a good spot." She smiled at me and we were off.


End file.
